Dinner with a dinosaur – farewell Dippy, and thanks for the inspiration
Events

Dinner with a dinosaur – farewell Dippy, and thanks for the inspiration

A guest post from Exploration Geoscientist Ben Kilhams, Communications Officer of our Petroleum Group… Everyone loves a good dinosaur. For many, their first fossil discovery or interaction with a museum exhibit instils a lifelong passion for understanding the history and mysteries of our planet. But one particular dinosaur (or at least a skeletal replica) has … Continue reading

Deadly volcanic flows
Interviews

Deadly volcanic flows

As everyone of course knows, Dante’s Peak is the greatest of all geological disaster movies (fight with me in the comments.) So I was thrilled last month when University of Hull volcanologist Dr Rebecca Williams not only delivered a brilliant London Lecture, but confirmed that the film is, at least pyroclastically speaking, more or less … Continue reading

Lady Woodward’s tablecloth
History

Lady Woodward’s tablecloth

Between 1894 and 1944, Maud and Arthur Smith Woodward welcomed countless eminent scientists into their homes in Kensington and Haywards Heath, Sussex. Arthur’s position as curator of the Geology Department of the British Museum of Natural History (now the Natural History Museum) meant that Maud was hostess to a huge range of famous names, and … Continue reading

The road to Fellowship – the history of women and the Geological Society
Events / History

The road to Fellowship – the history of women and the Geological Society

In March 2016, as part of International Women’s Day, we took part in ‘Inspirational Women of the Learned Societies’. The tour took visitors around the Burlington House courtyard, taking in some of the stories of the women who have worked in the sciences and arts since the foundation of the Learned Societies, and long before. … Continue reading

The 2016 Lyell meeting – Palaeoinformatics
Events

The 2016 Lyell meeting – Palaeoinformatics

The Geological Society’s 2016 Lyell Meeting, which takes place on 9 March, will look at palaeoninformatics – the information technology used to manage, preserve and distribute palaeontological data ‘Palaeontological data is our record of life on earth, and of the history of our biosphere’ says University College London’s Dr Jeremy Young, who is co-convening the … Continue reading

Save Our Soil
Policy

Save Our Soil

  Despite Sheldon Cooper’s references to geologists as ‘the dirt people’*, geologists are not usually associated in the public mind with soil. Most of the planet’s soil is no older than the Pleistocene (2.58 million – 11,700 years ago) – surely geologists are concerned with much older, much rockier stuff than this? Continue reading

Walking Through Time
Interviews

Walking Through Time

Nearly three years ago, two researchers uncovered a series of footprints on a beach in Happisburgh, Norfolk. Preserved for at least 800,000 years beneath layers of sediment, the footprints had been exposed by recent storms. There was just enough time to record 3D images of them before they were swallowed up by the tide. Continue reading